Swedish companies ready to return Iran market
Head of Iran-Sweden Joint Chamber of Commerce Abdolreza Rezaei says Swedish companies are keen to return to Iran’s market as they have good view regarding Iran market and they are eagerly pursuing the news of Iran’s nuclear talks in Vienna.
Speaking to ILNA, Rezaee said that the Swedish have good views regarding Iran’s market and they are currently pursuing the Vienna talks eagerly and they hope the sanctions are removed as soon as possible in order that Swedish companies can return to Iran market. He added that most of the Swedish companies which were in Iran in the past are strongly determined to return to the country if the sanctions are removed.
On the trend of Iran-Sweden trade, he said the Swedish have always been a good trade partner for Iran, and Iran’s imports from Sweden have been technology and capital goods. He reiterated that the Swedish do not sell Iran like other countries candy, chocolate and t-shirts, and Iran’s imports from Sweden have helped its industry and Iranians have also been a good trade partner for the Swedish.
Rezaee went on to say that Iran has no frozen money in Sweden and it needs no barter trade with this European state. He noted that the Swedish have always been interested in cooperating with Iran but due to their trade with the U.S. and their huge interests in the U.S. market, they were forced to stop cooperating with Iran due to sanctions.
He said unlike other European countries during the previous sanctions, Sweden never left Iran market because of the sanctions but it slowed down its cooperation, but this time because of the maximum sanction pressure, the Swedish were forced to leave due to sanctions but they can return.
Pointing to the trade volume of Iran and Sweden, he said that the trade exchange between the two states has declined considerably in recent years, adding that the trade volume was around 496m euros in 2017 which slumped to 396m euros in 2018 after reimposition of the U.S. sanctions which indicates no major drop but the trade exchange of Iran and Sweden dropped sharply in 2019 and fell to 66m euros in 2019 and it continued to decline in 2020 to 41m euros.
On the sectors which are expected the Swedish to return after the removal of the sanctions, Rezaee said that transportation is the major sector. He said before the reimposition of the sanctions in 2018 and in renovating the road navigation, the Swedish company Volvo reached an agreement with Iran for selling 8,000 trucks and other Swedish company Scania had also agreed to sell 7,000 trucks but reimposition of sanctions halted it.
He said he expects after the removal of sanctions, the path for renovating the road fleet will be open and the Swedish can also cooperate with Iran in the fields of power industry, packing, mining and metals.
Rezaee also expressed hope that the issue of the FATF would be settled as soon as possible, adding that as long as the FATF issue is not resolved, the removal of sanctions will be in vain for banking transactions and joining the FATF is necessary for reopening the banking transactions with the world.
He said Iran has not activity with Europe on the consuming goods and most of Iran’s trade exchange with Europe is on the capital goods, adding that Sweden after the U.S. is the strongest start-up center in the world and Iran can create good climate in this regard with the Swedish.
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